


It's a GOOD Ending

by AstroGirl



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, POV Second Person, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-26 08:12:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7566781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstroGirl/pseuds/AstroGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You've been here before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's a GOOD Ending

**Author's Note:**

> It's possible this may not the world's most original thought about the post-pacifist ending, but I just couldn't quite get some of the possible implications out of my head.

You're standing on the surface. There's warm sunlight on your skull, a cool breeze tickling your cheekbones, and a feeling of new beginnings in the air.

You've been here before. You don't remember it, exactly, the same way you don't exactly remember your dreams, but you know how many times it's happened. Well, hey, at least it's a low number. Statistically, you could take that as a good sign. It might mean that it'll never actually get much higher. Of course, it might also mean that out of some mind-boggling number of timelines some version of you might or did or will experience, this one – sunlight and breezes and all – is incredibly rare.

Or it might mean nothing at all. Probably that one. Not that you're going to get too worked up about it, either way. These days, you've become number to the math.

Heh. NUMB-er. Well, at least you've still got your sense of humor.

Around you, everyone is talking excitedly about their plans for the future. You don't bother joining in.

**

The timeline lasts the day. Then it lasts another. And another. It lasts enough of them that you actually stop counting. Which terrifies you a little, but you just grin wider. Enjoy it while it lasts, that's the thing, right? It's nice to be able to trade jokes with Toriel face-to-face for the first time (again). It's nice to be able to nap in the sun. And it's really, really great to see your brother this happy. They have varieties of pasta up here never dreamed of in the mind of monsterkind.

And then there's the kid. You're buddies. You really are. You weren't lying when you said you cared about them. You're proud of them... this time. You _like_ them. The two of you eat Nice Cream, play along with your brother's ridiculous puzzles, tussle in friendly fashion on the floor.

They never act like you could ever have been anything but friends. They never act like they know you know.

You're pretty sure they know you know.

**

The timeline lasts the month. It lasts another, and another, and another, and another. It's never lasted anywhere near this long before.

You take to getting up every morning to watch the sun rise, even though it makes your brother ask you who you are and what you've done with Sans. The sight of it coming up, day after day, it fills you with... something. You think it might be hope.

There's a joke to be made here. Something about waiting for another shoe to drop and you, a guy who only ever wears slippers. But you can't quite reach it, somehow.

**

"Sans," Frisk says, tugging on your sleeve. "Come and _play_ with me!"

"Just a minute, kid. I'm in the middle of something." You are. You're in the middle of what you think might be the rest of your life. Alphys is opening up a new lab, and for the first time in as long as you remember – or in as long as you've realized there were things you _couldn't_ quite remember – you've found yourself actually getting excited about a project again. They have such interesting science here on the surface world. You're starting to see ways it might complement your own, the two working off each other to generate results neither could achieve alone, and you want to get your thoughts down before they escape you.

"But _Sans_ ," the kid says, tugging harder. "I'm _bored_! And everyone else is busy all the time. If you won't play with me, I don't know _what_ I'll have to do."

You stop in the middle of a word and turn towards them. They give you a cute, wide-eyed look. Oblivious to how that sounded, or as good as you are at hiding what they're thinking?

Carefully, you set down your pen, then pick up the plans you've made and put them aside. "Sure, kid," you say. The late afternoon sunlight streaming through your window is buttery and warm, but you can feel a chill settling slowly into your bones. "Sure," you say again. "You know I'll do anything to keep you happy, right?"

Frisk gives you a big, delighted smile. Their face is nothing but innocent, nothing but friendly. This time. 

You think of your friends, of a dream-of-a-memory of a child's hands covered in dust, and smile back. Hey, smiling is easy. Smiling is what you're made for. 

If you have to, you can keep it up forever.


End file.
